Staff at Embassy

A Thanksgiving potluck

Benjamin Downey, Social Services Manager at Embassy Boston Merrimack, writes:

  Embassy Boston Merrimack students gather for a group photo after the feast

Merrimack staff and students enjoyed a Thanksgiving 'potluck' feast - everyone brought a dish, and the result was a huge spread of many different flavours, colours and cultures! See all the photos from this event on our Boston Merrimack Facebook photo gallery.

Too beautiful not to share

 
Barbra Drizin, Centre Director at Embassy San Diego, writes:

Today I woke up to this message on my Facebook page.
 
Hi Barbra,
I just wanted to thank you for sending to Marco the picture you took of us on the day of his graduation.  I really had the best time ever at Embassy and this experience changed my life from A to Z:  I met Marco, and now I even got a job!!! AND FOR SURE it was because of this experience.  The manager who chose me (among 100 people and more!!,) told me that I will organize language journeys for students and internships abroad...and for sure i will try to send everyone to SD and Embassy!  I'd be so happy to make someone else experience the same as I did.  I will work in Italy, so it will be a bit hard for me and Marco to meet, but we really want to try.  What San Diego gave us deserves a chance....we will always be so grateful to that city and most of all to all of you at the school:  you, Antonella, Christina,Katie, Kristin...I never felt like "just someone" at Embassy.  You were always so friendly.  I got really fond of all of you.  You did soooo much for me and my future...I mean, I got the job of my dreams because of Embassy!  I miss all of you so much!  Much love from Italy, Elena
 
Barbra continues: Elena and Marco met at school! We all appreciate this career choice that gives us so much reward like this!

After class at Embassy Oxford

Peter Madams, Embassy Oxford, writes: It’s not all work, work, work here in Oxford. We try to relax and have some light-hearted activities as well, maybe a little bit of fun too. There are a variety of clubs and societies to attend every week outside of classtime – they exist because a full and rounded education should contain both academic and extra-curricular activities.

Pictured here (holding the book) is Thuan from Vietnam looking very poetic. That’s because he’s at the PPP Club. What, you may ask, is PPP? It’s Pronunciation for Poetry and Prose. This club meets every week and reads and discusses poetry and prose and tries to improve their pronunciation. Last week they we reading poetry from the time of the First World War, because it was Remembrance Day.

Also pictured (below) are the Music Club, trying to get their harmonies right on the song ‘Way Back Into Love’ which features in the film ‘Music and Lyrics’. It’s really good to sing together and relieves some stress before the next class begins. When they learn the tune properly, and there are no duff notes, we’ll record them and put it on YouTube for everyone to watch.

 

Find out more about learning English in Oxford on the Oxford section of the Embassy website.

Ian runs again

Supportive crowds lined the streets of London on an October Sunday morning chanting “Ian, Ian, Ian!!!” The reason for this was that Ian (pictured, wearing a red top) was running a 13.1 miles half marathon and raising money for Embassy’s chosen charity: Building Futures. Any money that he raises is doubled by the company. 

Ian said that afterwards he felt wonderful and had a great day, achieving an impressive time of only 1 hour and 36 minutes. The route was past many of London’s landmarks – Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Marble Arch.

Ian's wife Jo was there amongst the crowds to lend her support. Needless to say, Ian is as fit as a greyhound and is looking forward to doing it all again next year.
 

San Diego Do Hallowe'en in Style!

Last week Embassy San Diego held a Hallowe'en party of the grandest style. Just take a look at these amazing costumes! "Guests" included the Super Mario brothers, Barack Obama, Spiderman, Elvis and all sorts of ghouls, superheroes and comic-book characters.

"I have never seen a Halloween celebration like San Diego's!" said Centre Director, Barbra Drizin, "We had four haunted rooms, costume contests, pumpkin carving contests, and delicious treats."

A big "thank you" is due to Marcia Broadway, the Senior Teacher who organised the event and is clearly a Hallowe'en enthusiast!

 

See more pictures of the event in the Facebook San Diego Album.

Find out how you can start learning English at Embassy San Diego.

San Diego Do Hallowe'en in Style!

Last week Embassy San Diego held a Hallowe'en party of the grandest style. Just take a look at these amazing costumes! "Guests" included the Super Mario brothers, Barack Obama, Spiderman, Elvis and all sorts of ghouls, superheroes and comic-book characters.

"I have never seen a Halloween celebration like San Diego's!" said Centre Director, Barbra Drizin, "We had four haunted rooms, costume contests, pumpkin carving contests, and delicious treats."

A big "thank you" is due to Marcia Broadway, the Senior Teacher who organised the event and is clearly a Hallowe'en enthusiast!

 

See more pictures of the event in the Facebook San Diego Album.

Find out how you can start learning English at Embassy San Diego.

San Diego Do Hallowe'en in Style!

Last week Embassy San Diego held a Hallowe'en party of the grandest style. Just take a look at these amazing costumes! "Guests" included the Super Mario brothers, Barack Obama, Spiderman, Elvis and all sorts of ghouls, superheroes and comic-book characters.

"I have never seen a Halloween celebration like San Diego's!" said Centre Director, Barbra Drizin, "We had four haunted rooms, costume contests, pumpkin carving contests, and delicious treats."

A big "thank you" is due to Marcia Broadway, the Senior Teacher who organised the event and is clearly a Hallowe'en enthusiast!

 

See more pictures of the event in the Facebook San Diego Album.

Find out, how you can start learning English at Embassy San Diego.

An unusual activity... skincare!

 

Students at all Embassy schools can enjoy a wide range of trips and activities, but a recent optional event at Embassy San Diego was most unusual.

Suki, who was once an English student herself, now works at a local spa. She came in to teach staff and students about skin care, and took everyone through the process of cleansing, face mask, moisturiser, and sun protection.

She even brought lunch for everyone and gave out prizes of some of her products - and all for free. In all, we had 27 people enjoying the pampering process, and not just females. This unusual event was enjoyed by everyone.

Learn more about San Diego extra-curricular goings-on on the San Diego Activities & Excursions page of our main website.

Your life in their hands

Our Student Enrolment Advisors are the people who receive your emails and phone calls when you make an enquiry or book a course through the Embassy website.

It's an interesting team to work in: between them, they speak, at last count, 17 languages, so there's always multilingual background noise in the office.

Obviously, team members come from many different countries, too, so there are plenty of opportunities to learn about each other's cultures, from the music we like listening to, to the sweets that we snack on and pass around the office.

All have one thing in common: they are living abroad, having become fluent in English through hard study. Thus they are extremely qualified to counsel you, students who wish to do the same thing.

Answering your enquiries keeps this team very busy, but now and again, they get to have some fun. This October was a case in point: the bravest of the team (together with the boldest Web Editors) went to 'Go Ape', an adventure activity day where you had to walk high among the trees, cross wobbly bridges, and zoom down zip-wires.

At the end of the day, I think most people had such aching bodies that they were happy to return to their desks and the ever-increasing list of emails needing a reply. They prefer to have your academic life in their hands, rather than their own lives dangling at the end of a flimsy harness!

Meet the Student Enrolment Advisors here, or see more photos of the event on our Facebook gallery.

Hallowe'en in Oxford

Peter Madams, Social Activities Organiser at Embassy Oxford, writes:

Students in Oxford showed off their scary dark side at a Hallowe'en night last week. There was much spookiness and messy games like ‘bobbing the apple’ and that other funny game where you pass a balloon from between your knees (though I don’t know the name of that). It’s always a good ice-breaker. 

As Wikipedia tells us, Hallowe'en is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints, but is today largely a secular celebration. Hallowe'en activities include wearing scary costumes [as in our photo] and attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, visiting haunted attractions, pranks, telling scary stories, watching horror films and ‘trick-or-treating’.

The UK has now adopted the American tradition of "trick-or-treating" which probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.

Find out more about learning English in Oxford on our main site.